F1 Paddock Notebook - Austrian GP Saturday

Recapping all of the additional news and notes following the Saturday's qualifying session for Austrian Grand Prix, Crash.net F1 Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.

Recapping all of the additional news and notes following the Saturday's qualifying session for Austrian Grand Prix, Crash.net F1 Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.

- Valtteri Bottas scored his first pole position of the season in Austria on Saturday, becoming the fourth different pole-sitter this year after Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo. It marked his fifth pole position in F1, drawing him level with 1982 world champion Keke Rosberg, and was the 54th to be scored by a Finnish driver. The Red Bull Ring also becomes the first track he has scored repeat poles at following his success there last year.

- Qualifying saw Mercedes lock out the front row of the grid for the second race running, with both Bottas and teammate Lewis Hamilton set to start the race on the Supersoft compound tyre. All of the other drivers who made it through to the top 10 qualified on Ultrasofts.

- Sebastian Vettel had been due to start the race third for Ferrari, only to be hit with a three-place grid penalty for impeding Carlos Sainz Jr. during Q2. This drops Vettel to sixth on the grid for tomorrow's race, promoting Kimi Raikkonen, Daniel Ricciardo and Romain Grosjean one position each.

- Sainz himself did not seem too bothered by Vettel's antics when talking before the penalty was announced, saying it did not stop him from advancing to Q3 and therefore had little bearing on his qualifying. The FIA stewards nevertheless looked dimly on the incident.

- Grosjean matched Haas' best qualifying result of the season by finishing sixth in Q3, drawing level with Kevin Magnussen's effort in Bahrain. The Frenchman will head into tomorrow's race with a golden opportunity to pick up his first points of the season after a scoreless start to the year.

- Charles Leclerc continued his record of making at least Q2 in every race since China with a charge to 13th, but will drop five places on the grid following a gearbox change. Although the issue that sidelined him in FP3 related to a suspension problem, Sauber thought it best to replace the whole gearbox.

- FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer also confirmed ahead of qualifying that Fernando Alonso had taken a new turbocharger on his Renault power unit, as permitted in the regulations. He is however now onto his third and final part of the season after just eight races.

- Alonso said post-session he thought P13 was the most McLaren could achieve in qualifying, but believed there was still a "high chance" of points on Sunday. Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne ailed to a second straight Q1 exit after finding just one-tenth of a second between runs.

- Another surprise dropout in Q1 was Sergio Perez, who said he could not remember the last time he was knocked out in the first hurdle of qualifying. For those wondering, it was at the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix when he qualified 17th. Traffic caught out many in Q1, with yellow flags following an off for Charles Leclerc at Turn 4 also catching many out.

- In Formula 2, Mercedes youngster George Russell took victory from pole position for the second week running, beating McLaren junior Lando Norris as the series' new rolling starts procedure to alleviate the recent clutch issues debuted. Artem Markelov will start from reverse grid pole on Sunday after a stunning late charge through the field, overtaking three cars at Turn 3 on the final lap before making a fourth overtaking at the last corner.

- GP3 saw more success for British-linked F1 team juniors, with Ferrari Driver Academy member Callum Ilott scoring his first Saturday win in the series, also taken from pole position. It marked Ilott's second straight win after his victory last Sunday at Paul Ricard, and vaults him into the lead of the drivers' standings ahead of Anthoine Hubert, who finished down in P17 after contact.